Zhekkan Gravecaller
"I commend you for your valour, now serve me." Zhekkan Gravecaller is a Lich in service to the Scourge who arrived on Azeroth with the Lich King. While on Draenor, Ner'zhul, the orc who would later become the Lich King, commanded a number of orcish warlocks and spellwielding death knights. Zhekkan was one of these Death Knights; Orc Necrolytes slain by the Shadow Council. The Lich remains in service to the Scourge, Zhekkan was too close to Icecrown Citadel to break free of the will of the Lich King at the moment of Arthas' death before Bolvar claimed them once more. As the Death Knights gradually move back to Icecrown at the beckon of the Lich King with the lure of portents of doom shown by the visions Helm of Domination, the Lich works to rebuild the system of mortal necromancers; though it remains a hollow shadow of what it once was. History Pre-Azeroth Zhekkan's history with the Shadow Council is spotty at best, unearthed records emerging from the fires of war paint the necromancer has a devoted student of the Nathrezhim and the demonic powers they wielded, and of references to terrible crimes across Draenor against the Draenei. He is recorded as surviving on Azeroth by pledging loyalty to Doomhammer and remaining servile thereby. After experimenting at length with the souls of the recently slain council members, Gul'dan successfully instilled the spirits of the warlocks into the corpses of fallen Human Knights. Gul'dan then summoned his necrolyte followers to a conjunction spell and sacrificed them while they were channeling. This sacrifice allowed him to imbue the spirits of the other members of the Shadow Council into the corpses of the fallen Knights of Stormwind. Thus the death knights were born. Each death knight was given a jeweled truncheon into which the powers of the slain necrolytes was imbued and thus the undeath of the Necromancer begun, and the Death Knight was assigned to the Shadowmoon Clan. He would later travel with the Elder Shaman back to Draenor and assist with the rituals to tear the portals open to flee the world. Yet, when Kil'jaeden and the Burning Legion captured these undead sorcerers after that world's destruction, they were transformed into twisted, spectral aberrations of their former selves. These newly born liches possessed tremendous magical powers, yet their immortal, undead bodies were bound to the iron will of Ner'zhul. Terror on Azeroth Cast down to Azeroth with the Lich King, they were granted control over the furious elements of Northrend as payment for their undying loyalty to Ner'zhul. Zhekkan and his fellow commanders prosecuted the destruction of the native human populations and the purging of native Troll settlements. The newly formed army of the damned would go on to battle the Nerubian empire, and Zhekkan's magics wreaked terrible agony on the once proud race, raising hundreds upon hundreds of spider-folk into undeath. He would gain some notoriety among the spider-folk, and kept a small army of them for himself, selecting the mightiest as a personal guard, taking great pleasure in finding settlements and holdouts to overrun them personally. He would order the last survivors captured and brought before him. These (un)lucky few would become higher order undead, retaining greater intelligence until they were finally expended in war. This elder Lich would be sent down to Lordaeron with many of his brethren, and they hid in the dark places of the land until the call went out to rise up. Zhekkan lashed the rampaging undead to his will, and directed them to the human towns, resting his gaze first upon that of Cinderholme. There he sent waves of the dead at the town to overrun it, and as he wore down the defenders he dragged the survivors before him. And the man who would become Velldune Blightmantle was dragged before him. The man spat in his face, cursing him with his last breath. And the lich reached down, and froze his heart in his chest. "I spit my last breath at you." "Then breath no more..." Category:Undead Scourge Category:Lich